There were a boatload of were newreleases on the rental charts this week, including the new number one renter, The Bank Job, which generated nearly 50% more revenue than its nearest competitor.
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Another week without a first run release that is in contention for the DVD Pick of the Week. Granted, The Bank Job is worth picking up, but neither the twoDVDs nor the Blu-ray have enough extras to be the DVD Pick of the Week. To find the best of this week's selection you have to look at the TV on DVD list and grab EurekaSeason Two. Paradoxically, while the quality is low, the quantity is high, so much so that I had to split the list into two parts. Part one can be found here.
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10,000 B.C. may have won the weekend with ease, but it wasn't able to come close to 300. Even if it had, the overall weekend would have still been behind last year's pace. Overall this weekend, movies brought in $107 million, which was 10% more than last weekend. However, it was a massive 30% lower than the same weekend last year. 2008 still has an advantage over 2007 at $1.67 billion to $1.61 billion, but ticket sales are now nearly identical.
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Good news, 2008 is still ahead of 2007's pace by a substantial margin. Bad news, the lead is shrinking. Over the past three days, overall box office earnings were $97 million, which was 12% lower than last weekend. More importantly it was 22% lower than the same weekend last year. 2008 still has an 8% lead over last year, $1.54 billion to $1.43 billion, but at this pace, that lead won't last until the end of the month.
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There's a real slump in top-notch sites, but it is still early in the year and no real blockbusters have been released so far. There are a couple of sites on this week's list that are good, but none that are great and none that win the Weekly Website Award.
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Wide releases are rather limited this week with only one film debuting in more than 3,000 theaters while the other two are opening in barely more than 1,000 each. Overall, the new releases do have a lot more strength than last weekend, but not compared to last year. In fact, all three wide releases combined might not earn as much this weekend as Wild Hogs opened with last year, which is bad news for a market that is starting to slip in the year-to-year race.
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National Treasure: The Book of Secrets slipped out of the top five, again, earning $6.94 million on 2702 screens in 34 markets for a total of $169.62 million. This includes a first place finish in Germany with $3.42 million on 641 screens for a total of $10.03 million after two there. The film opens in the U.K. this weekend and should have little trouble reaching $200 million before long.
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2008 got off to a faster than expected start with January helping the year to a 17.5% lead over 2007. It seems unlikely that February will be able to keep up that pace, but there are still enough releases that most avid moviegoers should find something to get excited about. Granted, this is partially due to the combination of the lead year and February 29th landing on a Friday. This means we have five weekends in February this year, something that only happens approximately once every 28 years, which explains the number of films.
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Big week in terms of flash sites launching, but a tough one when it comes to picking a winner. There were several sites that were contenders, and a few that will likely be winners after a few more updates, but none that stood out as the best for the week. It's almost like there were so many that were so close to winning the award that none were able to stand out and get me excited. However, there was one site that was updated this week that did, The Simpsons Movie - Official Site. This site did get a new look, but the real draw here is the first full trailer, to go along with the three previous teasers. Is that enough to make it award worthy? No. But while my rational side was distracted by a game of Sudoku the Fanboy in me made that decisions, and all Fanboy freak-outs are legally binding. Hopefully the final site will live up to the award. I have a feeling it will.
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